Brain Korea 21 PLUS Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Neurosci Lett. 2019 Sep 14;709:134389. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134389. Epub 2019 Jul 23.
First impressions follow a complex process that is greatly influenced by the facial attributes and the sex of the displayer. This study aimed to evaluate whether the initial impression formed in friendship decisions is processed differently between the same-sex and opposite-sex targets in women. Twenty-four healthy female volunteers participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, in which they appraised a given face and decided whether they wanted to befriend the target. Then, a post-scan subjective rating was performed for facial components such as cheerfulness, good-looks, and uniqueness. The data were used to perform univariate whole-brain analysis to identify the neural substrates of sex bias in impression formation, and exploratory parametric modulation analysis to examine the parametric effects of facial components. Results showed that a composite of diverse areas including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and posterior superior temporal sulcus were more engaged when viewing male faces than female faces. Parametric analysis revealed that bilateral lingual gyrus activities showed a negative parametric effect with cheerfulness for male faces, whereas left inferior parietal lobule activity showed a positive parametric effect with good-looks for female faces. During the formation of first impressions, diffuse areas related to emotion processing and conflict-monitoring were utilized when a person of the opposite sex was encountered compared to encounters with a person of the same sex. The perceived cheerfulness of a male face also showed a negative relationship with the identification of facial emotion in the male face; the more a female face was considered good-looking, a greater feeling of uneasiness appeared to be elicited. The findings from this study provide further evidence of sex bias in women during friendship encounters.
第一印象是一个复杂的过程，很大程度上受到面部特征和展示者性别的影响。本研究旨在评估在女性中，相同性别和异性目标的友谊决策中，初始印象的形成过程是否不同。24 名健康的女性志愿者参与了一项功能磁共振成像实验，在实验中她们对给定的面孔进行评价，并决定是否想与目标成为朋友。然后，对面孔的各个组成部分（如快乐、好看和独特）进行了扫描后的主观评分。使用这些数据进行了单变量全脑分析，以确定影响印象形成的性别偏见的神经基础，并进行了探索性参数调制分析，以检查面孔组成部分的参数效应。结果表明，当观看男性面孔时，多个区域（包括背外侧前额叶皮层、背内侧前额叶皮层、前扣带皮层和后上颞叶）的活动比观看女性面孔时更加活跃。参数分析显示，双侧舌回活动对男性面孔的快乐程度呈负参数效应，而左侧顶下小叶的活动对女性面孔的好看程度呈正参数效应。在第一印象的形成过程中，当遇到异性时，会利用与情绪处理和冲突监测相关的弥散区域，而不是与同性相遇时。男性面孔的快乐程度也与对男性面孔中面部情绪的识别呈负相关；女性面孔越被认为好看，就会产生更大的不适感。本研究的结果进一步证明了女性在友谊交往中存在性别偏见。
